Thus far the only stars from the main cast of Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class confirmed to reprise their roles in X-Men: Days of Future Past have been James McAvoy (as Charles Xavier/Professor X, Michael Fassbender (Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto), Jennifer Lawrence (Raven Darkhölme/Mystique), Nicholas Hoult (Hank McCoy/Beast), but today we learn that one of the other actors is set to return as well. As you can see above, director Bryan Singer has sent out his latest Tweet from the set of his new movie and confirmed that First Class' Lucas Till is reprising his role as Alex Summers a.k.a. Havok.
As seen in Vaughn's 2011 blockbuster, Havok's mutation allows him to generate an incredible amount of external energy that, if properly harnessed, can be used to form a focused concussion beam handy for battle. The character plays an interesting role in the timeline of X-Men films as he is actually the older brother of Scott Summers a.k.a. Cyclops, portrayed by James Marsden in the original X-Men trilogy. Strangely, Marsden is one of the few cast members from the first three movies in the franchise who is not yet confirmed to be a part of X-Men: Days of Future Past. Hugh Jackman, Sir Patrick Stewart, Sir Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Shawn Ashmore, Ellen Page, and Daniel Cudmore will all be coming back in their previous roles.
But what exactly is going on in Singer's latest Twitter photo? It would appear that Summers has actually left Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters and has enlisted in the Army. Give that most of the movie is set back in 1973, presumably this means that the pictured mutant is either in or soon to be on his way to the Vietnam War - subject matter that was previously confirmed to be a part of the story. The director included a poignant quote from one of our greatest presidents with the image, reading, "Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind." -JFK @lucastill #xmen #DaysOfFuturePast."
Scripted by Simon Kinberg and Matthew Vaughn, the new movie begins in an apocalyptic future where all mutants are hunted by giant government-created robots called Sentinels. In order to try and stop a cataclysmic event that led to the Sentinels being created, the surviving members of the X-Men send one of their own back in time to the early 1970s. New additions to the franchise include Peter Dinklage, Adam Canto, Omar Sy, Booboo Stewart, Evan Peters, Josh Helman, and Fan Bing Bing.
We will actually know a lot more about X-Men: Days of Future Past at the end of this week, as the movie is set to be a part of 20th Century Fox's plans for their Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con this Saturday. Given how many set photos Singer has been sending out recently, it would appear that they were working up until the last minute before they have deal with an endless sea of nerds packed into the San Diego Convention Center. Be sure to check back later this week for all of our SDCC 2013 coverage.
